Border treaty between Russia, South Ossetia takes effect — ministry

MOSCOW, September 29 /TASS/. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin and South Ossetian Foreign Minister Murat Dzhioyev have exchanged instruments of ratification of a treaty on the state border between Russia and South Ossetia, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"The talks dwelt on major bilateral cooperation issues, the forthcoming round of the Geneva talks on security and stability in Southern Caucasus," the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed.

Karasin and Dzhioyev exchanged instruments of ratification of the border treaty between Russia and the Republic of South Ossetia, which had been signed in Moscow on February 18, 2015 and had taken effect on September 29, 2016, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The document gives an international legal definition to the Russian-South Ossetian state border. It defines it as a line with a vertical surface, which divides territories (terrain, water, mineral resources and air space) between Russia and South Ossetia. The administrative-territorial border between the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, which had existed before the USSR’s disintegration, serves as the basis for marking the new border between Russia and South Ossetia. It will be enshrined in new legal acts and marked on a map.